self-titled: ^_^
coachella
shiiiiiiiit
i just almost got through the first day of the coachella writeup and my browser crashed. totally uncool.
what does this mean to you? well not much i guess. you miss the rundown of my flight over and friday in palm springs (I won $100 in blackjack, but then lost $50 on 2 hands, so really won $50 which is still fun). i guess that was the only interesting anecdote i had.
it was very hot down there in palm springs. the dry desert air helped somewhat, but it was still damn damn hot.
we stayed in friday night after delusions of going out and doing something, and then got up the next morning fairly well rested. jude, you see, had left the tickets to coachella at home so he had them overnighted to the hotel. 9am guaranteed delivery. 9am: nothing. 9:30: nothing. 10:00: jude calls ups and finds out they were delivered to the hotel at 9am signed by willk. 10:05: jude goes down and tells willk what's what.
we got some mcdonald's breakfast and then hit the empire polo grounds.
after waiting in a brief line in the oh-so-hot 98 degree weather, we picked up some water ($2 a bottle, not bad) and then walked around.
as we walked we heard the section quartet play, they were a string quartet that apparantly just plays radiohead songs. ok.
within about 15 minutes jude and i had parted from matt and his sister lisa. and now, our day:
erase errata: saw 3 songs. all chicks, not nearly as atonal and unlistenable as i had thought it would be, but certainly nothing good.
the sounds: bunch of swedes. sounded like a mix of pretty girls make graves, blondie, and the faint. we caught most of the set and i enjoyed it a good deal.
howie day: jude made me do it. i read our free copy of spin magazine during the few songs we sat through. sounded pretty inoffensive.
sahara hotnights: more swedes, 4 chicks, played generic rock music. we saw 3 songs.
the evens: ian mackaye (of fugazi) playing in a 2 piece with some chick. they played embarrassing pussy folk rock. singing about how the police are overstepping their bounds is cool and punk and stuff, but not when you sound like a gay man's simon and garfunkel and ian goes into a horrible falsetto all the time. fugazi weeps. flea played trumpet on a song or two but we missed that.
the stills: aka lunch time. the stills sound remarkably like they do on album.
q and not you: the first set that really gelled for me. we only saw like 5 songs, but i enjoyed them. it was stuff i knew but played loose enough to make it interesting. 'soft pyramids' especially rocked.
and you will know us by the trail of the dead: i solo'd this one for 4-5 songs. good live presence, but they played a lot of new unreleased stuff. 'another morning stoner' rocked, and i was sad that there was no 'how near how far'
junior senior: by way of the beck tent, which i couldn't get anywhere near. no shouting of 'd-d-d-don't don't stop the beat' in the tent, but it still kicked total ass. i danced way more than i should in an uncirculated stupid hot tent. some dude from sex and the city was dancing next to jude and i. it wasn't until later i realized he was from celebrity poker. anyway, this set rocked, i hat previously written off junior senior as a (wonderfully good) novelty, but this stuff was totally on.
death cab for cutie: disappointing set, great preformance. they played 2 songs off the photo album ('why you'd want to live here' & 'a movie script ending'), photobooth, and then basically the entire transatlanticism album. the build and apex of "transatlanticism" was freaking great. also, how fun was it to see this band and others with a backdrop of palm trees and mountains. totally weird.
sparta: jude and i headed to the main stage to gain ground for the main events. sparta, who i guess is one half of at the drive in, was decent. kind of that emo sound, without the wining and with some rock. oh, and healthy amounts of anti-bush statements. which was a major theme of the weekend.
the pixies: ah yes, the sort-of main event. the f'n pixies. they unassumedly took the stage, and jumped right into 'bone machine.' and the continued to smash through about 25 songs in their scant one hour set. it was pretty awesome. scary how the crowd around us (we were maybe 50 feet from stage) new freaking every word ever. one hell of an hour.
radiohead: jude left, because his feet were killing him. mine too, but not so bad i had to leave. then i waited 45 minutes or so and radiohead took stage. very good set, nice mix across the albums (including 2nd to last song "creep"). don't know how it compares to the suffolk down show, but it was damn good. and thom seemed particularly playful with the crowd, which was sort of odd. hell of a time, it was.
phantom planet: wandering around looking for jude, i caught maybe 4-5 of their songs. nothing really good. and i missed the goddam oc song.
kraftwerk: hehehe just had to see them.
then i wandered around the parking lot for 45 dealing with 0 reception and everyone's phone being dead, until jude finally spotted me as he was standing on the car.
day 2:
we were all pretty spent after day 1, and slept in a bit. didn't really get moving until noon or so. got mcd's lunch and then headed over.
much hotter than yesterday, i think 103 was the agreed upon temp. in line, some douchebags were spraying the crowd with hoses. fun on that first contact, but after that it was quite uncomfortable and they were just being dicks.
sadly, we missed pretty girls make graves.
jude and i got seperated from matt and lisa basically when we walked in, so jude and my day:
!!!: we established a seat early at the outdoor stage (jude wanted to be up close for bright eyes). it was hotter than hell out there. jude and i sat. !!! played. people danced, it was good.
broken social scene: during the interim jude and i moved up pretty close, maybe 20-30 feet off. BSS came on, first song was some song off the album that was mostly guitar noodling, nothing great. then they ripped into "KC Accidental" (i think) and it was ON. god i can't believe i missed them both times they were in boston. this set was amazing. they had 4 guitars going for a lot of the time, FIVE for almost crimes at the end, and it was just stunning... so perfectly put together, everything in its right place. beautiful and totally engaging. emily haines (the chick on the album) came out early on and was sadly very plain and ordinary looking. i was worried they wouldn't do 'anthems for a seventeen year old girl,' but later on they did and, holy shit. i'd like nothing more than to be able to experience the performance of that song on demand. in the "park that call / drop that phone" part, she started off singing it like 8x as slow, then 4x and then by she did it the way it was on the album and oh my god it was just overwhelming. they had all her vocal filters, and the four guitars going, and keyboards and jesus christ, i can't think of a live music moment that i was so moved. it's embarrassing, but tears were running down my face is how powerful it was. anyway, i said at that point that broken social scene would likely be the best of show for the entire weekend. oh yeah, before they ripped into 'almost crimes' which was just unbelievable, one of the guitarists proposed. what a show.
atmosphere: atmosphere followed. some white rapper from MN that jonathan really likes. he started off just played rage's "killing in the name of" really loud, and jude and i, who had moved up since BSS were like 2 people away from the ensuing mosh pit. he wasn't particularly good. i remember driving home from foxwoods on easter hearing some of his stuff and i liked it, but not so much here. after 5 songs or so i left jude to go eat and wander around.
2 many djs: my first trip to the dj tent, where people go in 103 degree weather to dance their asses off in a hotter, and non ventilated tent. go figure. when i got there it was some stupid dj playing non-descript drum and bass techno crap. amazing how people were dancing. on the bright side, many of the people their doing their aerobic regimin were cute girls in bikinis, but still... 2 many djs came out, a couple of skinny white guys, i stayed for maybe 45 minutes of the set, which was a little bit looser than the mix albums they put out.... i guess to accomodate the dancing or whatever. but was still a fun little bit of half mash-up dj mix.
belle & sebastian: it should be noted that i listened to a couple of sage francis songs as i walked to B&S. he was better than atmosphere. B&S was adequate. i stuck around for 5 songs or so, and, as jonathan would put it, was whelmed.
bright eyes: i tried to get up next to jude (second row) to no avail. but was pretty damn close. he opened with "don't know when but a day's gonna come" which was super awesome. then came a song or 2 i didn't know and didn't care for. then conor sat at the keyboard and played another song i didn't know but liked, and then 'lover i don't have to love' which rocked house, then 'bowl of oranges' which i hate. and then he played a bunch of songs i didn't know but they were all great. excellent set. also, gideon yago was on stage.
the plan here was to go get up nice and close to air. but both mine and jude's feet really really hurt. so we got food and listened to air. and it was night, with the sun down, air just sort of trickling over the area. they sounded good too... but there was really no need to be up front for them.
the flaming lips: we sat down for the lips. wayne coyne descended from space in a big plastic bubble, and then he rolled out onto the crowd and rolled around on their heads for about 2 minutes. it was very surreal. almost as surreal as the 8 people dressed in animal costumes waving around headlights and dancing, and also the two people dressed in giant star costumes that looked like a cross between nintendo's kirby and some super mario character. i left jude and steadily made my way up to a decent distance. the performance was excellent, but, when all was said and done they played 4 freaking songs. four songs. but oddly enough, the performance made up for it. it all ended with the band playing happy birthday for beck, but not before wayne dumped a decent amount of fake blood over himself.
mogwai: i met jude and we walked over to mogwai. saw a few songs in the classic mogwai formula: pretty guitar line, some keyboard, slow builds, then death metal riffage. i enjoyed it, jude did not.
the cure: we went back and sat down for the cure. robert smith is really just a fat version of himself. what we heard of the set wasn't anything spectacular, but it was good. nice and moody. but i don't think anyone was expecting the second coming.
le tigre: jude and i took a break to go see everyone's favorite lesbian feminist electo-punk go-go trio. it was both as fun and as hard on the ears as one would assume.
and i guess that's it. looking at the list i guess i saw less bands than i thought i had, but whatever. it was still an incredible experience.
if i have on regret, it's that i was not able to find adam brody (seth cohen on the oc). i had a feeling he was there, and just had it confirmed on the message boards. that seriously, would've made my life. i wonder if he could respect a guy who watches the oc. i'm pretty sure we'd be instant friends and it would all be good.
oddly enough, i had a dream either last night during my glorious 3 hour nap before our 4:30am wake up call or possibly it was on the evil plane ride. anyway, the dream was that adam/seth and i were going to see xiu xiu tonight, despite the fact that it would be a bad idea because of how tired and achey i am.
ALSO
ps
why do i have such bad airplane luck? why can't i ever have a seat next to someone attractive, or at the very least, vaguely interesting. this morning's flight from LAX was the worst though, because the old guy in front of me gets to sit next to this devastingly hot girl (in the tattoos and fishnets sense) who also seemed extremely nice and coversational. meanwhile i'm sitting next to some fat old hag. apparently other people get good airplane experiences, i'm pretty sure darren sat next to some hot chick recently and i guess katie was next to some cute investment guy or whatever. it's just not fair. and man, was this chick hot. obviously, i got to see her make out with her boyfriend immediately after leaving the plane, but still, it would've been 5 hours of ignorant bliss.